The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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This is one of the most ancient Marian feasts. It is thought that this feast originated in connection with the Feast of the dedication of a church dedicated to Mary, now the Church of St Ann, in Jerusalem in the 6th century. Tradition holds that this is where the house of Mary’s parents, Joachim and Ann, stood and where she would have been born.  What began as a local Jerusalem celebration began to be celebrated in Rome in the 8th century. The traditional date of the celebration is chosen to follow 9 months after the celebration of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. It is noteworthy that the tradition of the Church is to celebrate the life of a Saint on the anniversary of their death. However, in the case of Mary and John the Baptist, the celebration is on their day of birth, recognizing the special grant of holiness that was theirs from the beginning. Continue reading →

A Note from Brandon

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From time to time, with permission, I post one of the weekly reflections from Brandon Jubar, our parish youth minister. This week’s reflection is a reminder to us all on the need to be mindful of the movement of the Spirit in our lives and the goodness that surrounds us.

Parent to Parent

St. Paul, the passionate early Christian author of many influential letters in the New Testament, challenges us not to blend in with the world’s flow. Instead, he calls us to something remarkable: to transform our lives in ways that truly matter. It’s a message that holds incredible relevance for teenagers today. Continue reading →

Star Trek Day

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Happy Star Trek Day. It was September 8, 1966 that the pilot of the television series “Star Trek” was first broadcast on NBC. As you no doubt already know (or should know!) the series followed the voyages of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise, commissioner for deep space exploration by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century. Its mission was  “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”. Continue reading →

Sins against you: listening

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This coming Sunday is the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. (Mt 18:15)  One of the things to ask is: what is at stake? Sin, of whatever form, is not to be tolerated within the disciple community, but is to be dealt with when it is noticed. But what is at stake is winning over the brothers or sisters. The pastoral purpose of the approach is underlined by the verb “win,” which shows that the concern is not mainly with the safety and/or reputation of the whole community but with the spiritual welfare of the individual. “Win” suggests that the person was in danger of being lost, and has now been regained; it reflects the preceding image of the shepherd’s delight in getting his sheep back (v.12). Continue reading →

Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding

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The first reading for today is from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians 1:9-14, a part of the opening greeting of the letter – which is more than a greeting, it is a prayer for the people of Colossae in which Paul hopes the people are filled with the “knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” It is this ‘knowledge’ which forms the basis both of holiness and of thanksgiving, and which is the central characteristic of humanity that is now renewed in Christ (3:10 – the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator). Continue reading →

Restored Honor

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Today’s gospel is one that always needs 1st century context. Jesus has just been at synagogue where he cast out an unclean spirit from a man. Then we read, “After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them..” (Luke 4:38-39) Continue reading →

Sins against you: restoration

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This coming Sunday is the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.“If your brother sins (against you)…” (Mt 18:15). Long (Matthew, Westminster Bible Commentary) begins his comments on this section with: “Matthew has no romantic illusions about the church. He knows that the church is not all sweet thoughts, endlessly patient saints, and cloudless skies. In Matthew’s church, people – no matter how committed – are still people, and stormy weather is always a possible forecast” [p. 209]. Our own practical experience with such things often leads us to sometimes see 18:15-29 as a guide to church leaders on disciplinary action. But vv. 15–17 are addressed to ‘you’ (singular), the individual disciple, and their concern is not with the punishment of an offense but with the attempt to rescue a ‘brother’ whose sin has put him in danger. The passage is thus a practical guide to how a disciple can imitate his Father’s concern for the wandering sheep (vv. 10–14). Continue reading →

Advice for the Day

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Want a to-do list for today? Today’s first reading from 1 Thess 5:11 has some great advice: “encourage one another and build one another up“.  Sincere encouragement offers and number of benefits to the other: happiness, self confidence, resilience, and more. Offering encouragement doesn’t take a lot. It can be offered in words of praise, positive reinforcement, a verse from Scripture, or simply being there for someone when they need it. Would that we all would consistently do this for one another.

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The Sum of Some Things

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There is all kinds of counting going on in the Bible. Consider the Old Testament. The first five books of the Bible (Pentateuch) has counts of the entire population, of only the priestly groups, and of males eligible for the military, the number of Jacob’s family members who went to Egypt, of the Israelites who left Egypt, and of the exiles who returned to Judea. Counting was used for military and labor conscription and of course, the age old people’s favorite of  taxation. The New Testament has some advice about counting. Luke 14 asks what person would not sit down and count the costs before undertaking a major building project. Continue reading →